Billiard-table cushion



HION.

J. N. McINTIR BILLIARD TABLE GUS Patented May 12, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

JACOB N. MCINTIRE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE BRUNSVICK- BAIiKE-COLLENDER COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BlLLlARD-TABLE CUSHION.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 560,170, dated May 12, 1896.

Applicati n filed October 21,1895. Serial No. 566,428. (No model.)

To all whom it may cclw m and use cushions comprising, either in whole Be it known that I, JACOB N. B'ICINTIRE, a or in part, my said improvements, I will now citizen of the United States, residing at New proceed to more fully describe the latter, re- York, in the county of New York and State ferring by letters to the accompanying draw- 5 of NewYork, have invented certain new and ings, which form part of this specification, useful Improvements in Billiard-Table Oushand in which I have shown my said invention ions, of which the following is a full, clear, carried out in those forms in which I have so and exact description, reference being had to far practiced it. the accompanying drawings, forming part of In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical secthis specification. tion of so much of a billiardtable, with a ball My invention relates to cushions for bilresting on the bed thereof and barely in conliard-tables, and has for its main objects to tact with the cushion, as is necessary to be provide for use a billiard-table cushion which {shown to illustrate my invention. Fig. 2 is will be faster than those now in general use, a similar view, but showing the ball in such 6 5 1 5 on which the English (in making twisting forcible contact with the cushion that it conshots) will be very effectual, which will not tacts with the entire working face thereof in cause the balls to wear or gutter the beda vertical direction. Fig. 3 is a view similar cloth so badly, and which shall be exceedto Fig. 1, but showing the cushionstrip proingly efficient, durable, and desirable in acvided with an interiorly-arranged face- 20 tion, while costing little, if any, more than hardening device. Fig. tis aview like Fig. the kind of cushion now manufactured. 3, but showing a ball forced into contact with To these main ends and objects my inventhe working face of the cushion to illustrate tion may be said to consist, primarily, in a the distortion thereof and the slight change rubber cushion-strip having a soft working ofpositionoftheface-hardeningdevice. Fig. 2 5 face (or ball-contacting surface) that is 10- 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, except that a narcated in a plane slightly oblique to the perrower face-hardening strip is shown. Fig. 6 pendicular and so that the ball will first conis a like view, but showing a wholly different tact therewith at a point approximately halfarrangement of facehardening device. way between the uppermost point of said In the several figures the same part will be 3o plane and a point therein about on a level found always designated by the same referwith the center of the ball, whereby when the ence-letter. ball is played against said working face the A is the cushion-strip constructed accordinitial point of contact, while above the level ing to my invention, composed of any comin which lies the center of the sphere, is conpound or material suitable for the purposes 5 siderably below the top edge of the said face, of a billiard-cushion, and securely fastened, and whereby after the surface of the ball in about the usual manner, to the wooden shall have come into forcible cont-act with the lining B of the cushion-rail C, though it whole extent of said face (in a vertical direcis not essential, of course, to my invention tion) the cushion-face will also react on the that the said cushion-strip be secured to the 0 40 ball at a point considerably below the level cushion-rail in this usual manner so long as in which'lies the center of the latter, thus it be properly held in place with its working tending to repel the ball in substantially a face in substantially the relationship to the horizontal direction, all as will be more fully bed D of the table that I have shown it in. explained hereinafter, and as will be finally As usual, the cushion-rail is securely but 5 45 pointed out particularly in the claims of this removably attached to the bed of the table, specification and my invention may be said and the finished cushion is covered with green to consist, secondarily, in certain other struccloth tacked at its lowermost portion to the tural features which will be found hereinafbottom of the wooden lining B, stretched ierfully described, and which will be particuthence upward over the cushion-strip, and no 50 larly pointed out in the claims. having its upper rear edge wrapped around To enable those skilled in the art to make the inserted retaining-strip F, after the fashion familiar to the billiard-table manufacturer. I have, however, omitted this cloth covering of the cushion, as well as the bedcloth, in order that the drawings may be made to more distinctly show (without a confusion of lines) the more important parts of the cushion proper.

E is a billiard-ball, not shown placed the same, however, in all the figures, and in like manner I have shown in some of the figures only face-hardening devices t' of different forms and differently arranged, as will be presently described.

In the case shown my improved cushionstrip is molded with a semicylindrical longitudinal recess a, running along the middle of its back side, and in practice, so far, I have made the strip with a canvas backing, in a known manner; but these particulars of the shown cushion-strip are not at'all material to my invention; nor is it essential that the shape and size of the rubber below the working faee thereof be just as I have shown them to be. Indeed, I have contemplated variations in these particulars, which,however, would not change the principle of construction and mode of operation peculiar to my invention.

I have shown all the parts drawn exactly half of a full-sized table, supplied with balls about two and three-eighths of an inch in diameter, or with what are known (in this country) as balls of the standard size, so

that those skilled in the art seeking to-prac-- tice my invention can successfullycarry out the same by following the said drawings.

Preferably the extreme upper front edge of the rubber strip A is made slightly rounded, as seen at '01, instead of perfectly angular, (or sharp,) simply to render this upper corner less destructive of the green-cloth covering by frictional wear of the latter, this special form of this part havingbeen shown by practice, with cushion-strips heretofore in use, to be desirable for the reason just above stated. This rounded upper edge of the strip, however, comes into active operation only when the ball E is played very hard against the cushion, though even with a comparatively light stroke the uppermost part of the stock of strip A necessary to the formation of the rounded corner it operates as-a reinforce to the main portion of said stock, and thus influences the action of the working face of the cushion.

By reference now particularly to Fig. 1 it will be seen that the line representing the working face of the strip A is only inclined backward very slightly from the vertical, as

it extends downwardly from the rounded upper edge a, and that therefore said line is tangential to the circle indicating the ball E at a point about three-sixteenths of an inch only above the level of the center of said ball. I have drawn two dotted radial lines at Fig. 1 to illustrate the above explanation, and it will be understood that while the ball is prevented from jumping by thus having its initial point of contact above its center and 011 an oblique (or cut-under) working face the degree of obliquity is so slight that the repellent action of the ball in a slightly-downward direction does not cause any appreciable portion of said force to be expended in driving the ball downward (against the bed of the ta ble) at the expense of the legs of the ball when making a stroke. As, however, it is in making comparativelyhard strokes that in the diamond-shaped cushion now almost universally employed the wedging-down action of the ball is-most objectionable, both on account of detracting from the legs of the ball (or lessening the rebound thereof) and 011 account of the guttering of the bed-cloth by the pounding thereon of the balls, a most important novel feature of my-improved cushion lies in this, viz: that as soon as the ball E shall have been forced into contact with the entire extent of the working face, (vertically,) so that the latter is made to conform to the curved surface of the ball, as shown, for instance, at Fig. 2, then the repellent force of the strip A acts also on the ball not only at a point coincident with the level of its center, but furthermore acts on the ball below a horizontal line passing through its center, and hence the cushion will in its effort to resume its normal condition throw the ball off with little or no appreciable downward force on the ball. Furthermore, inasmuch as that portion of the working face lying above the initial point of contact yields a little more readily, under the impact of the ball, (as the latter forces the face into the shape shown at Fig. 2,) than does that portion below said point, it follows that that portion of the cushion-face acting at and below the level of the balls center will exert a greater repellent force proportionately to extent than the part acting on-the ball above its center, thus rendering the cushion competent to exercise a great repellent power on the ball and mainly in a horizontal action; I need hardly add that the reason why the upper part of the working face acts less powerfully on the ball than the lower is because the rubber which backs up the former can yield to the impress of the ball more easily on account of the freedom of the top surface of the strip A to bulge upward, while the lower part of the working face is backed up by stock so disposed as to present more impediment to the-forcing backwardly of this part of the said face.

I have shown the working face extended below the dotted line (at Fig. 1) indicating the level of the balls center only about a sixteenth of an inch; but it may be carried lower if deemed or found in practice to be desirable, though about the form shown for the lower part of the cushion-strip has been found to work perfectly, and it will be observed that this form of strip combines economy of stock with ample strength or force of action. It is also to be observed that a cushion having its working face and entire front side shaped as shown presents to the eye of the player an appearance so similar to that of the cushion now and for many years past in universal use that his eye will not be distracted in using the new cushion. )Vhile this matter of appearance may seem to be one of little moment to the casual observer, it is of some importance to many players.

A change in the appearance of the cushionfacesuch, for instance, as is observable between a curved or rounded workingface and a face lying in a plane forming an angle with the plane of the top of the cushion-easily distracts the eye of the player in gaging cushionshots, so that in starting to play on a rounded face after being used to looking at the angular strip now in general use he would have to get used to the rounded cushion.

To increase the resiliency of the cushion A, I place within it, slightly in rear of the outer surface of its working face, a thin strip 71 of some suitable hard and durable material, which operates to bring into play or action more evenly and to a greater extent the mass of rubber disposed in rear of the working face and thus renders the cushion-strip capable of more forcibly repelling a ball played against it, while at the same time preventing any undue embedment of the ball in the face of the cushion and a consequent material discrepancy between the angles of incidence and reflection. In practice so far I have used for this face-hardening device a piece of hard rubber compound enveloped or jacketed by a covering of canvas or analogous fabric; but some other material or materials may be used, it being desirable, however, that this device be of such a nature and so combined with the stock of the strip A that the two things will be perfectly and durably united.

I have found it best to mold-in the facehardening strip, and that in the process of vulcanizatiomto which cushion-strips are usually subjected, the parts will be very durably and perfectly united.

At Figs. 3 and l the strip i is very nearly as wide as is the working face of the strip A, and it is located so that there is nearlya sixteenth of an inch of the soft-rubber stock of A outside of the device 2'; but these exact proportions may, of course, be varied more or less without materially changing the action of the cushion.

The strip 2' at Fig. 5, it will be observed, is much narrower than that of Figs. 3 and 4, and this narrower strip gives to the cushion a slightly-different mode of action, since by reason of the lower half of the working face bein g left unbaeked the upper part thereof will be stiffer proportionately to the lower half than in a cushion made like Fig. 4. Hence with the cushion seen at Fig. 5 there will be less liability of any jumping of the ball than with one like Fig. it.

)Vith an arrangement of the device i as shown at Fig. 6, where it is not only arranged at a considerable angle to the face of the strip, (instead of parallel therewith, as seen at Fig. 3,) but is also tied down to the root of the cushion by a web of canvas, (indicated by the dotted line in the figure,) the action on the ball is further modified because of the stock of A lying intermediately of the outer surface and the hard strip 1' being backed up at points farther and farther in rear of it, from the uppermost point of 1' downward to the lower edge of the latter, and because that portion of the stock of A included between its two outer planes and to the plane formed by the device 1' and the canvas strip (indicated by the dotted line) will have a slightly-different action. In the form shown at this figure the cushion will have still less tendency to permit any jump of the ball, and will be slightly faster.

Although the slightly-rounded edge or is desirable for the purpose hereinbefore mentioned, even without this the strip would not wear the cloth covering nearly so much by abrasion as does the correspondingly-rounded edge of the present (diamond-shaped) cushion, because in the latter the balls practically strike directly against this upper corner (or edge) of the strip, while in my construction of cushion the ball contacts almost wholly with the plane or fiat working face of the-strip, and always with so much of the surface as not to pound the cloth covering in a manner tend ing to eventually cut or wear it through at a line of contact.

In practice the ivory balls (which are very expensive and soon get out of true) have to be trued up after short use, and hence they are often furnished new to the purchaser slightly over the standard size of two and three-eighths inches in diameter, and during their continued use generally become appre ciably less than this size from successive re dressing to keep them perfectly spherical. Therefore, as matter of fact, the cushion must be adapted to operate with the best possible average action on balls of somewhat different sizes. Nowwith the form of cushion in gen eral use prior to my invention these necessary changes in the size of the balls have had the effect to produce these different results, viz: with the ball slightly over the full or standard size, the ball-contacting upper edge of the cushion being at a difierent relative elevation, the effect on the ball would be different, and with the ball of aless diameter than the standard size the wedging-down action of the cushion-face on the ball would be greater, thus aggravating the objections of detracting from the legs of the repelled ball and the wearing of the bed-cloth.

In my improved cushion, it will be seen,with the ball either a little larger or a little smaller than the standard size, the point of initial contact is always on a plane that bears practically the same relationship to the circle (or circumference) of the ball E, because of the working face having so slight a degree of obliquity and extending in all cases above the point of initial contact.

llavin g now so fully explained my invention that those skilled in the art can make and use cushions embodying it, either in whole or in part, and in either the precise forms in which I have so far practiced .it or under some were change therein, and wishing it to be understood that less than all the separable features hereinafter claimed may be used with more or less advantage, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A cushion-strip having a soft,or impressible, plane, or flat, working face, which is slightly inclined from its upper edge underward; and which is located, relatively to the table-bed, so that the ball thereon will contact initially therewith at a point intermediate of the top edge ofthe face and a point therein on a level with the center of the ball; all substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth 2. The combination, with a cushion-strip of rubber compound, having a soft, flat,\vorking face that is slightly oblique to a vertical plane, and that is located, relatively to the table-bed, so that the ball first contacts, at a point below the top edge thereof and above the level of balls center, of a strip of some suitably hard and resilient material molded in the strip slightly in rear of its working face; parallel therewith; and of a width nearly equal to that of said face; in the manner and for the purpose specified.

3. The c )mbination with a rubber cushionstrip having a working face such as specified, of a face-hardening,strip nlolded therein in rear ofsaid face; of a width about half that of the face; and arranged parallel therewith, and with its upper edge about'on a level with the top edge of said working face; all substantially as hereinbefore set forth and for the purpose described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 23d day of April, 1895.

J; N. MOINTIRE.

In presence of B. R. RYAN, HELENA A. QUEENAN. 

